Nothing Comes Easy
by LeeLam
Summary: In which everything comes easy, and that's precisely the problem. Feat. Anti-Percy who is really still Percy, misguided attempts at humour and inappropriate language. I'm just as confused as you are.


Percy sighed.

This was not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, for a twelve year old it could probably be argued that Percy sighed entirely too often. The twelve year olds Percy normally saw around his neighbourhood were getting into mischief with their friends, running around the neighbourhood, or spending too much time making dumb faces at their camera phones. But whatever it was they were doing or not doing they went about it with some form of energy and enjoyment. But not Percy. Even now, as he slid out of the way of another of Nancy Bobofit's spit balls, easily avoiding the soaking wet projectile and letting it collide with some poor sap sitting behind him, Percy wasn't even roused from his introspection.

It was hard to say exactly when Percy had become this way. If you asked his teachers, they would say that at some point around the third grade it became clear that the boy just didn't care.

"Perseus is clearly a smart young man, as indicated by his stellar marks, but his attitude is a serious problem," read one his third grade report. Another, from his fourth grade gym teacher said,

"While he easily outperforms his peers, Percy is a problem student in my class. His disrespectful attitude and the lack of attention he pays during class make him a vile and unapproachable boy." Yeah, Mrs. Clarke really hadn't taken too kindly too him.

If you asked Percy's stepfather, one Mr. Gabe Ugliano, he would tell you that Percy had always been like this. Rotten to the core, bone idle, useless. All words that were bandied around without care.

If you asked Percy himself, he would probably fix you with a long stare, sea green eyes flickering with some hidden feeling. Then he'd sigh, because when it came down to it he really didn't have an answer. The when was tricky. It was something that had slowly crept up on him over the years. Not a flashbulb moment were his brain suddenly declared 'No more!', but more of a slow, creeping feeling. An ooze of apathy that slid its way down his entire being, like syrup over pancakes.

Yes, the when Percy had no idea about. The why though? Well the why was much simpler. Some fool had once said that nothing worthwhile ever came easy. Well for Percy, it did. And that was the problem.

* * *

Percy slid off the bus and started walking towards the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where his history teacher, Mr. Brunner, sat waiting in his wheelchair. He ignored the girl (Claire he thought, or was her name Meg?) who had sat next to him on the bus, looking the whole time like she wanted nothing more than to strike up a conversation and blushing enough to make a tomato jealous the entire ride. She'd been doing it the whole semester, but with only two weeks left till the summer break Percy wasn't exactly too keen on giving in now.

"Hello Perseus!" exclaimed Mr. Brunner as he spotted Percy at the bottom of the steps.

"Hey Mr. B," replied Percy with a lazy half smile and flick of two fingers, his customary salute.

"Excited for the exhibits today?" questioned the friendly, if slightly odd old teacher, "They've just opened up a new Greek wing."

"Yeah, I guess it'll be cool," replied Percy, his attention already drifting up to the sky and away from the conversation. Mr. Brunner just gave a small smile and amused shake of his head, before starting to take the roll call.

Mr. Brunner was one of the only teachers that Percy had gotten along with in his academic life. Most took his lazy attitude and short attention span as a sign of disrespect, and when you combined that with his literally perfect grades, they called him incredibly arrogant and condescending. Mr. Brunner however, just tended to laugh and brush off his eccentricities, although for some reason Percy couldn't put his finger on the history teacher seemed more astounded than most by his perfect test scores and essays.

Percy couldn't help it. Everything just came easily to him. Written work? Perfect and professional, not a fault to be found. Sports? His coaches proclaimed him a prodigy, and fought amongst themselves to try and get him for the basketball team, football team, swimming squad etc. There was even that time when a couple of idiots had tried to jump him for his wallet and phone on his way home from a late night pizza session with his friend Grover. In spite of having literally no martial arts training, Percy had just known what to do. Without breaking a sweat, he had slid around punches, countered kicks and before he even really processed what was happening the five guys were strewn around the alley unconscious while Percy just picked up his jacket and kept strolling on home. The ease with which everything came to him didn't surprise or faze him any more. Its just who he was.

Could he have hidden it? Maybe. He could have intentionally failed some classes, intentionally missed some shots in gym. But when it came down to it it was honestly more work for him to try and fail then it was to just go with the flow and sleepwalk his way through whatever was thrown at him.

Percy was snapped from his introspection by a shake of his arm by his friend Grover. Grover was a good kid, someone who like Mr. Brunner just seemed to accept Percy for who he was. He supposed it had something to do with Grovers crutches, the two of them were both a little odd. Not normal kids by any means. But whatever the reason was, Grover wasn't bothered by Percy's apathy, and someone who Percy happily called his friend.

"Sorry to interrupt you Perce," apologised Grover, the slightly skittish tone in his voice as always, "but they're going in without us."

Percy just smiled back at him, green eyes still half lidded.

"All good G-Man, lets get going."

* * *

The museum had been alright, Percy supposed. Although he wasn't really learning anything new, the museum was pretty relaxing, and the statues and artefacts were a damn sight more interesting to stare at than the back of someone else's head in a classroom.

Right now though, things were starting to get a little strange.

"Look Mrs. Dodds, if you wanted to speak with me we could have just done it back in the cafe," Percy reasoned, as the strict teachers aide took him deeper into the museum.

"No Perseus, we definitely need some privacy," she said over her shoulder, still dragging him by his hand through halls and through closed doors.

Percy took a second to process those words. He looked at Mrs. Dodds. He looked at their intertwined hands. He looked up and saw the glint in her eyes, her predatory smile. She wanted privacy. It clicked in his head.

'Oh shit,' he thought.

He'd seen this before on that To Catch a Predator Show.

"Mrs. Dodds, I'm sure you make your husband a very happy man, but I'm not interested. I'm twelve."

She tripped. Literally. She took two steps to process what Percy had said, and on the third she missed her footing, and went face first into the floor, spluttering and red faced. Percy managed to slip his hand from hers just in time and stop, avoiding going down with her, which was good because within two seconds she had leapt back to her feet and wheeled around to face him.

"What the fuck are you on about Jackson!"

"Look, I've watched the shows. I see that look in your eye. You want some 'privacy'. Its sort of flattering, if a bit weird. But still, definitely a hard no from me."

This was met with roughly fifteen seconds of spluttering before her face twisted into a nauseated snarl.

"I don't want to fuck you Jackson!"

Percy idly wondered whether he should be insulted by that, attention wandering now that the imminent situation was dealt with. He was a reasonably handsome young man. Pretty tall for his age, in good shape. Heck, that girl on the bus made it fairly obvious he would be considered-

"-so I, took you here to kill you!"

-at least sort of cute. But to be fair, Mrs. Dodds was like 45, it would be presumptive to assume she would have the same standard of cute as a twelve year…...Wait.

"Wait what did you just say?" Percy asked, clearly just zoning back in. This apparently wasn't the right thing to do, as Mrs. Dodds let out a terrifying shriek of anger and flew towards Percy at frankly in human speed.

Percy sidestepped her charge on autopilot, his brain now playing catch up with the current situation.

'Did she just say she wanted to kill me?' mused Percy, once again stepping out of the way of a shrieking Mrs. Dodds. She flew – literally flew Percy realised, she'd sprouted wings at some point - past him and careened into a four foot tall vase shattering it and cutting up her arms in the process.

"Stand still and let me kill you Jackson!" she screeched, shaking off the impact and hovering a few feet off the ground "Lord Hades will reward me greatly for your death!"

Percy simply stared at her with a little confusion before shrugging and waiting for her to charge. He already knew how this would turn out.

With yet another ear piercing screech, a sound that was quickly getting on Percy's nerves, she charged once more. Percy just bided his time, waiting for the last possible moment before he slid into motion.

With perfect timing, Percy turned 90 degrees, the strange woman-bird-bat-thing's claws missing his throat by millimetres. At the same time his arm shot up, and his elbow caught her throat halting her in mid air with a choked sound. The speed of her charge just made the clothesline manoeuvre even more devastating. Not yet done, Percy turned, removing his arm from her throat and before her limp body could hit the ground he grasped the back of her head with his other hand and slammed her face first into the floor, cracks radiating through the marble from the impact.

It was literally all over in less than a second. Two effective, if somewhat brutal moves, and his teacher had gone from terrifying bird thing to corpse – no wait. She wasn't a corpse. Before Percy's eyes, what had once been a body was now a pile of gold dust.

Standing up with a yawn, and scratching the back of his head slightly, Percy revelled in the feeling of being a little surprised for once. Not at his brutal take down of whatever Mrs. Dodds was, that he expected, but he didn't really expect the whole turning into dust thing. Actually the whole situation had been a bit off, what with the flying and the whole 'Lord Hades' business but honestly Percy wasn't going to pay that much mind to it. Not worth the hassle of trying to figure it out.

With this thought in mind, Percy shoved his hands into his jeans and began to turn back towards the entrance of the museum. That is until he spotted someone staring at him from down the hall way.

"Oh, hey Mr. Brunner," Percy began, ambling towards the stunned teacher, his customary half smile already falling back onto his lips, "I think the Mushroom Quiche special at the cafe might be a bit more special than we thought!".

With a chortle, Percy just walked right past a frozen Mr. Brunner, mind already drifting off onto something else.

* * *

 **Two Weeks Later**

Percy sat comfortably on the couch in the cabin he and his mum Sally, had rented for the week in Montauk, enjoying the sounds of rain on the roof and his mum humming to herself in the kitchen. His step dad was off on some drinking trip with his buddies, so his mum had managed to finagle a week off from her boss and as a treat decided to take him up to their old holiday spot.

It was nice to be honest. Percy was always a mamma's boy deep down and in spite of his crushing apathy, he would always make the effort to spend extra time with Sally. They'd arrived early in the afternoon, and after spending a quick hour on the beach retreated inside to escape the oncoming storm.

Percy was using the time to just switch off his brain. After the commotion at the museum (he still wasn't sure whether he'd just been high out of his gourd or not), everything had been weird at school. Mr. Brunner hadn't said a word to him, just shooting him strange looks out of the corner of his eyes every now and then. Grover too had been strange, constantly checking in on Percy and always hovering around his periphery. Even for someone as checked out as Percy was, it still got to him a little. Mr. Brunner seemed as happy as Percy was to chalk the whole incident up to an extra special quiche, which was great, but clearly something had changed. Still, it wasn't worth the effort of confronting anyone about it. So Mr. Brunner and Grover had been left to fret in peace, Percy aced his finals (much to the ire of his teachers) and now he got to spend a week relaxing with his mum. It could be worse.

"You know I met your father here," came the Sally's voice from the small kitchen, shaking Percy from his reverie "I think it was actually this cabin."

"Really?" Percy replied, shuffling up the couch to make space as he saw his mother coming out drying her hands on her skirt.

"Mhmmm. It was the first summer I ever spent up here, and I met him out on the beach one day. I can't even tell you how many nights we spent on this couch just laughing the night away, listening to the waves."

Percy took advantage of his mothers distant happy look to surreptitiously check the couch for stains, not really wanting to think to much about what else they might have done here. None the less, he wrapped a comforting arm around his mothers shoulders, which earned him a smile.

"He was wonderful Percy, a lot like you. He had the same hair and eyes, though I can't say that you got your brain from him," confided Sally with a chuckle. "I always told him there was nothing but kelp between his ears," she whispered like it was their little secret. Percy smiled at this, but could have sworn he heard an annoyed wave crash into the sand outside even over the storm.

'Is it even possible for a wave to sound annoyed?' Percy mused, as his mother continued her story, clearly still talking about his father based on the glint if her eyes. For that matter he could have sworn -sworn!- that he heard a contented and happy set of waves when he jumped in for a quick swim earlier. There must be something seriously wrong with him if he was thinking the sea had emotions. Between that and the whole museum thing maybe it was time to start looking into a good psychologist. Or maybe looking into the long term effects of psychedelics at least. There was that guy who lived in the apartment two doors down who probably knew a little about that, given the smell that normally wafted down the hall. Sally swore that it was the smell of oregano but-

A flick to his forehead drew Percy out of his musing, and he refocussed to find his mother giving him a fond look.

"You were off in your head again weren't you," she teased, not really looking put out at all.

"Mhmmm," was Percy's only response, not embarrassed at all. It happened so often that neither of them found it upsetting, Percy because he was completely used to it and Sally just chalking it up to another unique thing about her son. Mothers were good like that.

"Well, now that you're back with us earthlings, how about you come with me and set the table for dinner. Maybe you can listen a bit better with a stomach full of pizza."

Smiling, and helping his mother up off the couch, they begin to head towards the kitchen. Which was precisely the moment someone knocked on the door.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Percy said calmly, gazing at his friend Grover who was currently sitting alongside him in the back seat of his mothers car, nervously chewing on the seatbelt.

"You," he pointed at Grover who gulped "are a satyr. A mythical creature sent to retrieve me," here he gestured towards himself "and bring me to some summer camp where I'll be safe from some unspeakable danger that is lurking out there?" he finished with a vague wave to indicate the dark woods outside, and a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Y-ye-yeahhh-h," was Grovers nervous reply, eyes rapidly flicking between Percy, his own cloven hooves, and the dark storm raging outside.

"I know its a lot to try and believe honey," came Sally's voice from the front seat. Her eyes were a little panicked but firmly on the road ahead, and she was pushing the car far faster than would probably be recommended given the storm.

"No, no, I believe you," said Percy simply, settling himself back down into is seat and gazing ahead into the rain. Sally and Grover shared a look via the rear view mirror, before Grover spoke up.

"R-really? Just like that?"

Percy simply turned to him with a deadpan expression, and pointedly looked down at Grover's legs, which were decidedly not human any more.

"The evidence seems pretty clear."

Sally let out a small chuckle from the front seat, her son's laid back attitude shining through even now relaxed her a bit.

"We'll be there soon honey, and there'll be more time to explain the details." She shot Percy a smile in the rear view mirror, which he returned with his normal sleepy half smile, before his eyes shot wide.

"Look ou-!" was all he managed of his shouted warning before a massive bolt of lightning struck the front of the car, sending it into a spin and slamming them into a ditch on the side of the road.

Miraculously, Percy felt reasonably uninjured. He looked over to see Grover rubbing his head, stunned but apparently still okay. His mum however was a different story. There was a gash right on her hairline, pouring blood down her face, and while her chest was still rising and falling, she was out cold.

"Shit," muttered Percy, scrambling over the seats to get to her. He unbuckled the seat belt and kicked open the door, first clambering out himself before pulling Sally out after him, being careful of her head. As he finished removing his mother from the slightly smouldering wreckage, Grover stepped up beside him having escaped the wreck on his own.

"We need to get to the camp!" he shouted, his voice still quivering with nerves but desperately trying to be heard over the storm. He gestured to the side of the road, "It's just up that hill, half a mile at most!".

Percy's only response was a weary nod. This night kept on getting weirder and weirder, but he had to trust his friend was in the right. Panicking would help no one. He and Grover slung one of Sally's arms over each of their shoulders and began the trek up the hill. It was slow going, with the wind and rain beating down on them and Grovers small frame barely being able to support is share of Sally's dead weight, but they were making progress.

As they neared the top of the hill, Sally began to stir, the jostling of the boys steps and the water seeming to have roused her. She stepped out of their grip when they reached the top of the hill, and stopped with a melancholy look on her face.

"I can't come any further Percy," she said, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

Percy just shot Grover a look, to which he sadly nodded. Percy sighed, and stepped back towards his mother to wrap her in a hug, and she immediately buried her face in his neck and let out a few sobs.

"I'm so sorry baby," she heaved between her tears, slightly hysterical. "I just wanted you to be safe with me."

"It's okay, I'm okay," he soothed, rubbing her back. While he still needed some answers and he wasn't happy that he apparently needed to leave his mother behind, he enjoyed the quick moment of comfort while he could get it.

"Percy," came a familiar voice from behind him. He pulled himself away from his mother and turned to see Mr. Brunner sitting in his chair a few feet away. Next to him was Grover, an abject look of misery on his face, and a pair of boys who looked like twins, with brown hair and mischievous eyes. While his teacher was dressed much like he expected, the two boys were wearing what looked like leather armour, with bronze swords strapped to their hips. Percy raised a lazy eyebrow after giving their attire a once over and received smirks and puffed chests in return.

He turned back to the wheel chair bound man.

"Hello Mr. B, funny seeing you here. I suppose we probably should have a chat?"

"Definitely Perseus, definitely," he chuckled in response, wondering what it would take to properly shake his students endless nonchalance, "Sally, I'm so sorry for the situation but you know the rules. Our driver Argus is waiting down with the van to take you back home."

Mr. Brunner gestured back towards the road where they could see the vague shape of a car and a man standing in the rain waiting. Sally gave a tearful smile and a nod, before wrapping Percy up in a hug one more time.

"Be careful sweetie," she whispered, squeezing him tighter and tighter, "I love you so much."

"I love you too mum," he replied. He pulled away, holding her at arms length. Sally seemed reassured by her sons lazy smile and, wiping the tears from her eyes, pulled her coat over her head and began to jog back down the hill.

His eyes lingering on her for a moment, Percy turned back to Mr. Brunner and his strange escorts before stepping closer.

"Well as much as I love standing around in the rain..." he began, hands firmly back in his pockets and eyes half lidded.

Mr. Brunner let out a small chuckle and opened his moth to answer when he spotted something over Percys shoulder.

"SALLY!" he roared, instantly drawing attention back to the woman running down the hill.

At once, everyone on the hill seemed to spot the massive bull like man charging towards Percys mum from the tree line. Their responses were all vastly different. Mr. Brunner began to leap out of his chair, a bulky shape emerging beneath him. Grover let out a distressed bleat of alarm. Sally herself screamed and stumbled as whatever it was drew to within ten metres of her. One of the twins swore and moved for his sword, while the other took a step forward and began moving forward. Percy however, he barely missed a beat. It took a fraction of a second for his eyes to widen, before they narrowed back into focus. Never taking his eyes of the beast he reached behind him and grasped the sword hilt that was currently still in one of the twins sheath and ripped it out, earning a shocked yelp. Not even taking a second to realign his grip Percy stepped forward and whipped the sword around side arm, sending it spinning through the air. Five pairs of eyes barely tracked the blur of bronze as it curved slightly through the air, and the beast itself never even saw it coming, simply letting out a shocked cry as the lethal improvised boomerang cut its head clean from it shoulders.

As the monster dissolved into the now familiar gold dust, four pairs of eyes turned back to Percy as he turned back to the group.

Disregarding their stunned looks and open mouths, Percy simply sighed.

"But seriously guys, standing out here sucks."

* * *

 **A/N**

Hello anyone who has stumbled across this. Prepare to be disappointed!

Well I hope not, but I don't want to oversell here, because this story is going to be odd. Its my first time writing fanfiction as opposed to original content. I probably won't stick to canon too much. There will be my weird version of humour and little action. Its basically just a series of interactions strung together. My version of Percy is practically the anti-percy. I'm rambling!

The premise here is just something that came to me when reading some fanfiction and getting a little bored of the normal tropes. I don't want to disparage, but I got used to seeing the same things happening a lot; Percy is all powerful but has to hide it and lie so the plot can still stick to canon **OR** Percy is a tortured soul who is so full of pain he can't function **OR** Percy is all powerful and all knowing but as a result is noble, valiant and for these reasons struggles to fight his battles to the same extent he did in canon. I could go on forever. And I honestly don't have a problem with those kinds of stories, lord knows I've read millions of words worth of them. But I wanted to do something fresh that flies in the face of these beats. Something new. Or at least have a decent shot at it.

So my Percy is the anti-percy, but at heart, is still Percy. We'll dive into it a little more as things move along, but basically he's good at everything. Literally, everything. Canon Percy is defined by his struggle to prove himself, having struggled at everything he's attempted. This makes him who he is on the outside; brash, defensive, sort of obnoxious. My Percy is good at everything he does, and it makes him who he is on the outside; completely relaxed, unflappable, a bit sarcastic and dry at times because he knows that no matter what the task put before him he'll be good at it, so much so that the world has gotten boring to him. But thats just the surface. Deep down, both canon Percy and my Percy are still total mumma's boys, they have a strong sense of whats right and wrong and they both still have the fatal flaw of loyalty. Same guy, different masks, no?

Anyway, I just wanted to justify and give a little insight into my reasoning here. If you don't like it, there's not a lot I can do or say, but feel free to leave a review and let me know. If you do like it then huzzah! I'm still not sure precisely sure where this story will go, the only solid idea that sparked it was the fully formed version of Percy that wandered into my head but I guess we can find out together.

Hit me up with questions about the story or life in general, i'll try to answer as many as I can.

Peace and love to you all


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